Apple to hire former Time Warner Cable executive for cloud division

Apple has tapped a former cable executive as a vice president working on cloud services, the company told The Wall Street Journal.

Former Time Warner Cable executive Peter Stern will help run a division that includes Apple Music and a potential streaming television service, the Journal reported. Stern will join Apple's quickly growing services division, under Eddy Cue, Apple's senior vice president of internet software and services, Journal reporter Shalini Ramachandran reported.

The move could help Apple's inroads into television, the Journal reported. The television industry has long been of interest to the maker of Apple TV, since co-founder and late CEO Steve Jobs had ambitions to reinvent the medium, according to technology journalist Walt Mossberg.

Apple CEO Tim Cook has touted the company's services division, saying he expects it with be "the size of a Fortune 100 company by next year." But Apple has been criticized for its handling of internet services by prominent commentators like Om Malik and John Gruber, who points out that tasks like wirelessly syncing music to the newest Apple Watch are glitchy, even for the company that invented the iPod.